Assessment of Potential Material Reprocessing of Erdenet Mine Tailings

Abstract

The objective of this study is to define possible ways to reprocessing Erdenet mine tailings with potential metal recovery. These tailings have relatively high copper and molybdenum concentration (e.g. tailings III has Cu: 0.2-0.5%, Mo: 0.1-0.2% content), some of which are concerned as reusable deposits. But the measured concentration of metals does not have a homogeneous population over the whole tailings due to settling of the materials, reclamation of process water and drying of the materials, etc. The tailing facility is one of the largest in the world with a total area of 18.6 km2. Over 40 years of history of Erdenet processing plant, the tailing has been collected in the tailing dam and now becomes the biggest resource for research